Search form

Sen. Paul Puts Senate on Record on Balancing the Budget

You are here

WASHINGTON, D.C. – Today, U.S. Senator Rand Paul (R-KY), chairman of the Federal Spending Oversight and Emergency Management (FSO) Subcommittee, put the U.S. Senate on the record on ending Washington’s runaway spending through a procedural vote on his Pennies Plan five-year balanced budget.

Twenty-one other senators joined Senator Paul in voting for fiscal responsibility, while 69 senators voted to continue the big-spending status quo.

“I rise today to let the American people know that there are some of us left in Washington, some of your representatives, who actually do care about the mounting debt,” Sen. Paul stated on the floor. “When people say the government can provide you all these things, they can only do it by either taxing you or borrowing. Right now, we’re doing it mostly through borrowing,” said Sen. Paul.

Senator Paul’s Pennies Plan budget simply states that for every on-budget dollar the federal government spent in Fiscal Year 2019, it spend two pennies fewer a year (a cut of two percent per year) for the next five years (at which point balance is reached – without touching Social Security). In the following five years after it balances, the proposal would result in a $913 billion surplus.

The Pennies Plan budget provides legislators with full flexibility to make the best decisions on where to cut, setting a goal of balance and then calling on Congress to use the tools provided to make the changes in law needed to achieve that objective.

The plan requires each committee with mandatory spending to be involved in the reconciliation process, as was the process’ original purpose. It also facilitates needed budget process reform, raising the waiver threshold for all budget points of order so the Senate is held to a higher standard and making the budget spending totals enforceable for 10 years instead of just one.

Senator Paul’s legislation also includes instructions that would help pave the way for making the middle-class tax cuts permanent and further expanding access to Health Savings Accounts (HSAs).